As you will probably know, Beautiful World, Where Are You is Sally Rooney’s new novel and after her first book being such a hit both as a book and as a TV show, there was quite a big fuss in the UK and around the world about her new release. I got my stunning copy in the September Books That Matter (https://www.booksthatmatter.co.uk) box when they collaborated with Sally Rooney and Faber & Faber to create a special edition box that celebrated Sally’s new release. So I read this book back in November but have been struggling ever since to write my review. Every time I have come to write my review, I’ve really struggled with putting my thoughts and feelings into words so bare with me here, I’m going to try and have a go…

So firstly, let’s begin with what the book is about. The book follows the long-distance friendship between Alice, a novelist, and her best friend, Eileen. Alice meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, Eileen is getting over a recent break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they ever find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

To be quite honest with you, when I read the blurb for this book, I have to say I was neither eager nor excited to start reading it. I actually thought it would sit on my bookshelves for months to come, just waiting to be read. So when I chose to read it back in November, it was actually because I was in the mood to read it. I fancied a bit of the pie that everyone was eating over on my socials and I also wanted to experience Sally Rooney all over again.

However, I have to say that I have a love/hate relationship with Sally Rooney and especially with Normal People. I didn’t love Normal People but I didn’t hate it either. I’m a full-on fence-sitter when it comes to that book and I don’t even deny it. I feel like what that marmite book did was introduce a new type of love story that has never really been told in a mainstream outlet before. For me anyway, the book felt like a turning point in literature where readers are introduced to this ‘modern’ and actually realistic way of dating and love. The love between Marianne and Connell was not a cheesy, all-encompassing love that everyone dreams of and neither was it the typical poor-boy-meets-rich-girl story - it was in fact a very complicated and (apologies for this) ‘normal’ love story that many of us have probably experienced. Combine that with the way Sally Rooney never uses speech marks, and you have a book that a fair few readers have never read before. Yes, I’d also agree that it’s as problematic as it is refreshing and as someone who couldn’t even get through one episode of the BBC adaptation, I can see why so many people are so divided over the book - however, I think what Sally Rooney did excellently was present us with a mirror to actual normal relationships in these modern times to show us how love can take many shapes and forms.

The reason I go on this huge Normal People tangent is to highlight the complications with loving/disliking Sally Rooney and her novels to help you understand what I thought about Beautiful World. But enough about Normal People, and let’s get into the nitty gritty of my review…

I think I actually really enjoyed this book. I say ‘think’ because again, I’m not entirely sure if I’ve decided on my final verdict. One of the main reasons why I enjoyed the book is because I actually found that I felt connected to the main characters more in this book, especially Alice and Eileen, as complicated as they were as main characters. The narrative interchanges between Alice’s and Eileen’s perspective but the story is also told through emails exchanged between the two friends and it’s during these emails where both Alice and Eileen ‘put the world to right’ and discuss all manner of topics that pop into their head whilst writing. I have to say that out of all the elements of this book, the email exchanges were my least favourite as I sometimes found them a little too ‘preachy’ but the things they were discussing, such as life/death, would send me into little anxiety panics and I would often have to skip over those pages.

Although I’d argue that nothing major happened in the book, I think that what made me enjoy the story was the exploration of mental health, relationships, love (especially complicated love) was iconic. I felt seen. I think in true Sally Rooney style, she excellently explored very raw human moments and connections by using disjointed, messed-up characters who form messed-up relationships with each other. And yet, even though you know their relationships are toxic, and it makes you sad reading about them, the brutal honesty of it is actually really refreshing and relatable for a lot of people; me included.

Just like with Normal People, Beautiful World forces you to re-think your views and opinions of love and what it means to be in love. And Sally Rooney isn’t just talking about the love between you and your partner she’s exploring all sorts of relationships. Family relations, friendships, encounters with strangers - all these moments of human connections that form how we behave and how we think. So without getting too spiritual, I feel like this book isn’t full to the brim of action and you may completely disagree with me and not enjoy it one bit, but for me I feel like Beautiful World is a moment. It was written during a time when hardly any of us were having these magical moments with strangers, our families or our friends and I certainly think this book made me appreciate my memories and genuine human connections even more.

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